[3] Born in London,[4] Noel-Baker was educated at Westminster School and King's College, Cambridge, where he won an exhibition to study history.

During his first term in the House he was noted for his interest in international affairs, and in 1948 he acted covertly for the British Government inside Francoist Spain, observing the political conditions there and liaising with underground resistance activists.

Vociferous in parliament, diligent in his constituency, and gradually taking charge at the family estate on the large Aegean island of Euboea, he managed – for a time at least – to reconcile socialism in Britain with feudalism, albeit enlightened and benign, in Greece.

Although he had supported the previous democratic government,[3] he maintained that the colonels' rule represented reform from political corruption and a way forward for ordinary Greeks.

[9] Nonetheless, his residence there was not without its dangers: having angered many locals by publicly supporting the military junta, numerous attempts were made throughout the 1970s by the post-dictatorship Greek government to seize his land and have him evicted.

Only when Noel-Baker found the title deeds to his estate hidden in his father's air-raid shelter, with signatures supplied by both the Greek and Turkish authorities, did the harassment cease.